Musical instrument



Feb. 18, 1930. H. c. MARX MUS I CAL INSTRUMENT Filed Dec. 9. 1927 a l afx;

INVENTOR ATTORN EY Patented Feb. 18, 1930 PATENT OFFICE HENRY G. MARX, OF NEW TROY, MICHIGAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Application filed December 9, 1927.

This invention relates to certain novel improvements in musical instruments and particularly to those of the zither type.

An object of my invention is to provide a simplified musical instrument of the foregoing type in which the number of strings is reduced without decreasing the range of tones.

Another object of the invention is to arrange the strings on a musical instrument of the above named character such that cer tain of the strings may be acted upon to produce the melody while others may be acted upon to produce harmonizing chords.

Another object of the invention 1s to arrange the strings such that they will be disposed in so called chords and to arrange the groups of chords such that the tuning thereof will be simplified.

A further object of my invention is to provide a musical instrument of the above named character in which a bridge is located at a predetermined position in the length of said chords and to dispose said bridge in such 5 a position as to establish a definite relation between the tones produced by manipulating strings on opposite sides of the bridge.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a musical instrument of the fore- 30 going character which may be of simple and economical construction and one which may be readily arranged such that a person not particularly skilled in music may be able to play same.

Other objects will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel combination and arrangement of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention will be best understood by 40 reference to the accompanying drawings, showing the preferred form of construction and in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan elevational View of an instrument embodying a preferred form of construction for my invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmental side elevational view of the device depicted in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmental plan elevational View of the bridge construction em- 5' ployed in my device.

Serial No. 238,306.

In the drawings wherein the preferred embodiment of my invention is illustrated, indicates the body portion of a musical in strument of the zither type which is formed so as to serve as a sound box. It is to be understood that the particular formation of the body portion 10 forms no part of my invention as said body portion may be made in a number of different ways although I have depicted a preferred form in the ac companying drawings.

At each end of the body portion 10, anchoring elements 11 and 12 are provided. The anchoring elements 11 are adapted to be of the fixed type known as hi ch pins and are concealed from view by a protecting strip 13 that is secured to the end of the body portion 10 as clearly illustrated in Figs.

1 and :2. Disposed adjacent the hitch pins 11 is a bridge strip 1% and the strings 15 are led over this bridge and are retained between the portion 16 of the strip 13 and the end of the body portion 10 by being secured to said hitch pins 11. The anchoring elements 12 are in the form of tuning pins or keys and a bridge 17 juxtaposed these tuning pins which are indicated by 18. The strings 15 are led over the bridge 17 and are tired to the tuning pins 18.

I have found that if a third bridge is disposed intermediate the two named bridges a difference in tone in the strings on opposite sides of the third bridge may be obtained provided the third bridge is not mounted at the exact midpoint between the two named. bridges. I have also found that if the third bridge is located at a point substantially two-thirds of the extent from one end, a difierence in tone of one octave will result when the same string on opposite sides of the bridge is picked. Such a bridge is indicated in the drawings by 18 and includes a reduced portion 19 that is adapted to bear against the upper side of the body portion 10 and the bridge also includes a wire tension 20 across which the strings 15 are led. The reduced end portion reduces the likelihood of the relative position of the bridge being changed by warping of the upper side of the body portion 10. The bridge 18 is made of a size sufficient to readily absorb the vibration resulting from picking a string on one side of the bridge so that the re sultant vibration thereof will not be transmitted to the portion of the string on the opposite side of the bridge. With the bridge disposed in the position shown in Fig. 1 the length of strings on the side indicated by M are adapted to be picked to produce the melody while the strings on the side H are adapted to be picked to produce the harmonizing chords.

In order to determine the proper position of the bridge 18 the various strings are first properly tuned relative to each other. Then bridge 18 is positioned and by alternately picking the same tuned string on opposite sides of the bridge the proper position of said bridge may be determined; that is, the bridge is moved slightly back and forth until it is positioned such that the string on the side M, when picked, will produce a tone an octave higher than the portion of the string on the side H. If the two outside strings alone are tuned and are used to position the bridge the other strings will be tuned relative to each other after the bridge has been properly located relative to said outside strings. Therefore as the remaining strings are tuned relative to each other, the portions of the strings on the side M will, when picked, produce tones an octave higher than the portions on the side H.

As is clearly illustrated in the drawing the preferred arrangement for my invention is that the strings 15 be arranged in chordal groups and, therefore, the strings are arranged in sets of four. In this manner harmonizing chords may be very expeditiously produced by merely setting in vibration all the strings in one group simultaneously. In this way the necessity of fingering is entirely eliminated and, therefore, the melody may be played on the strings on the side M while harmonizing tones may be produced on the side H, only two hands being required to play this instrument in this manner. It is obvious that if the strings were arranged in the manner of the diatonic scale that fingering would be required and, therefore, playing of an in strument of this type would be very difiicult, but since the strings are arranged in chordal groups no fingering is necessary and, therefore, the playing of this instrument is rendered very simple.

A preferred manner in which the strings may be mounted is depicted in Fig. 1 and the small reference numerals on the bridge (see Fig. 3) indicate the manner in which the diatonic scale may be produced, that is, when the string above the numeral 1 is picked the first note of the diatonic scale, in the key in which the instrument is tuned, is produced. When the string over the numeral 2 is picked the next note of the diatonic scale is produced throughout the diatonic scale. Thus it will be seen that the same string serves to produce notes varying one octave in pitch and thus the number of strings required is reduced by two.

As has been stated, the strings are preferably arranged in chords and on the upper surface of the bridge 18 numerals are imprinted below the strings. In order that a novice play this instrument I have provided a simplified music chart which may be positioned below the strings as is clearly illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2' wherein a chart 20 is positioned below the strings on the side M. A marking point is provided on the upper surface of the chart 20 in order that it will bepr'operlyoriented relative to the strings on the sideM. A sinuous line is drawn on the chart 20 with dots at predetermined points ther'ealong. These dots are disposed such that they lie below the strings in on the side M. By picking the-string lying above the first dot' and then following the line along until thesecond note is reached and then ickin the string thereabove and then following the line until the third dot is reached and picking the string thereabove and thus following the line and picking the string above the dots as they are reached the melody of a piece may be played. As is clearly illustrated in Fig. 1 beside certain' of the dots numerals are imprinted. These numerals correspond to the numerals for the chords on the opposite side of the bridge. Therefore when the first note is picked the strings of the number 1 chord will also be set in vibration and thus a so called harmonizing chord will be produced. The

.neXt chord to be struck will be actuated at the time the fourth note on the melody side is attained and as the numeral 3 is disposed beside this note chord number 3 will' be actuated. Thus, by following this line, a novice may readily produce music of a pleasing quality. I

It is apparent from the foregpi ng, description that I have provided. a device which will scale I have described herein need not be used by a person skilled along musical lines.

WVhile I have illustrated and described the preferred form of construction for carrying my invention into effect, this is capable of variation and modification, without departing from the spirit of the invention. I, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction set forth, but desire to avail myself of such variation and modifications as come within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a musical instrument, a plurality of strings arranged in chordal groups are stretched between two spaced apart bridges, and a third bridge arranged intermediate said first named bridges and disposed closer to one of said bridges than the other of said bridges whereby when the strings of a chordal group are set in vibration on one side of said third bridge a chord an octave higher than the chord produced by setting the strings in vibration which are on the other side of said bridge in the same chordal group.

2. In a musical instrument, a sound box having hitch pins arranged at one end thereof, a bridge disposed adjacent said hitch pins, tuning pins at the opposite end of said sound box, a bridge arranged adjacent said tuning pins, strings extending between said pins and over said bridges disposed in chordal groups, and a third bridge arranged intermediate said first named bridges, said third bridge being disposed closer to one of said first named bridges than the other of said bridges whereby when the strings of one chordal group are set in vibration on one side of said third bridge a chord of an octave higher than the chord produced by setting the strings of the same chordal group in vibration on the other side of said bridge will be produced.

3. In a musical instrument, a sound box having hitch pins arranged at one end thereof, a bridge disposed adjacent said hitch pins, tuning pins at the opposite end of said sound box, a bridge arranged adjacent said tuning pins, strings extending between said pins and over said bridges disposed in chordal groups, said third bridge being disposed such that substantially one-third of the extent of said strings will be disposed on one side thereof while the remaining substantially two-thirds of said strings will be disposed on the other side thereof.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

HENRY C. MARX. 

